Dota Underlords is Valve's version of Auto Chess and you can play it right now

A pre-release build of the game is available to Dota 2 Battle Pass owners.

Valve has officially revealed Dota Underlords, its standalone version of Dota Auto Chess that we first heard rumors about a month ago. In fact, it's playable today for anyone who owns the Dota 2 Battle Pass.

"For the last few weeks, we’ve been running a Friends and Family Beta, and today we’re expanding it to include all Dota 2 Battle Pass owners," Valve wrote. "With your help, we’ll be stress testing our servers as we prepare for our Open Beta."

The current build of the game will enable players to take part in eight-way multiplayer matches, practice offline against bots with difficulty settings ranging from easy to hardcore, and play cooperatively against bots or other players. Ranked matchmaking, cross-play, and cross-saving will be added once the game enters open beta.

"We’re sharing Dota Underlords fairly early in development. And while we intend to constantly be updating the game and adding features throughout the Beta Season, your feedback is critical to help the team know what issues are important to you," Valve wrote. "On the main screen we’ve added a ‘Submit Feedback’ button to the game. Feel free to wear it out. Tell us what you love, and tell us what could be better. We welcome it all."

If you own the Dota 2 Battle Pass, you'll find a link to Dota Underlords on the Dota 2 dashboard in your Steam library; if you don't own it and want to, hit up dota2.com and get ready to spend a tenner. And if you'd rather wait, you won't have to wait long: Valve said the Dota Underlords open beta will begin in about a week.

Andy covers the day-to-day happenings in the big, wide world of PC gaming—the stuff we call "news." In his off hours, he wishes he had time to play the 80-hour RPGs and immersive sims he used to love so much.